


The Astral Lions

by Skylerius



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: AU, Angel/Demon AU, Drama, Fluff, Gen, No shipping to start with at least
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-16
Updated: 2018-07-15
Packaged: 2019-06-11 04:34:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15307572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skylerius/pseuds/Skylerius
Summary: Obligatory angel/demon AU with some weird twists.I would like to note that I am NOT a frequent poster, so do not expect weekly updates. QvQ I'm a busy person IRL and focus a lot more on my personal art/writing than I do fanfiction, so I tend to only hop on AO3 on occasion. Enjoy the story for what it is, when I post it, rather than stressing over updates. >v<"





	1. Lore

There exists, beyond the domain ruled and known by humankind, a world known as the astral realm, and it is there that spirits reside. Those yet to be born reside as light, tiny flickering specks like fireflies dancing through the sky, and those whose time has long passed find peace among their memories and their ancestors. Some beings, however, are born to this realm; they are the forces of order and chaos. The Creators That Be assigned these entities to their respective worlds, commanding them to keep balance for all beings who come to live beneath them, and Earth, land of the humans, was no exception. The entities sent to balance the world of humankind took forms to resemble those they guided, and came to be known as angels, beings of order, and demons, beings of chaos, respectively.  
  
The angels are beings marked by a pair of feathered bird-like wings, long pointed ears, and glowing marks on their faces, and they are the keepers of order. They guide humans down a path of contentment and peace, as well as influencing the predictable patterns of human and animal behavior, along with weather patterns. They adhere strictly to a sense of lawfulness and reason, keeping everything down its designated path and obeying all laws set by the Creators That Be. They prevent the human race from destroying itself or the world in which they reside, giving them a sense of right and wrong.  
  
The demons resemble the angels, to a degree, though their wings are leathery and clawed, like those of bats or dragons, and their appearances are more varied than those of angels, with some having tails and some not, some having the elegantly pointed ears and some having wider, furry ears. Their less predictable appearances make sense, considering they are the keepers of chaos. They influence humans to be competitive, defiant, creative, and unpredictable, and while to blame for much of the grief humans go through, they are also to thank for the raw beauty in the world. They break the monotony of passing seasons and turn each human being into an individual, making them feel wild emotion rather than going peacefully through life like they are asleep.  
  
Originally, the angels and demons got along well. They lived together as brothers and sisters in the astral realm, respecting and understanding what one another did to keep humankind down the right path... one of peace and passion alike, a beautiful world that both order and chaos could love. So genuine was their love for one another that the Creators That Be entrusted them with five guardian beasts, beings that could act as weapons in the case of great calamity. They trusted them with that power, believing their love for one another and the human world would ensure the beasts would never be used for the wrong reasons.  
  
The five astral beasts were massive lions born of the stars, shimmering with the colors of the galaxy. So beautiful and mighty were they, that the angels and demons crafted an enormous castle for them to live in. The Castle of Lions, a shimmering ivory tower that rose so high it seemed to pierce the atmosphere itself and extend into space. For millennia, the angels and demons continued to live in peace, tending to the human race and revering the astral lions who resided within their castle. All was as it should be. Balanced.  
  
That was, until a great calamity occurred, just as the Creators That Be feared. Except, much to their dismay, the disaster did not come from an outside force. It came from within.  
  
The delicate balance of order and chaos was broken when the two great kings, Alfor and Zarkon, came to conflict. All it took was one slight misstep on the part of the demon king, and humankind was thrown into a vicious cycle of war that resulted in countless losses. The dead flowed into the spirit realm in a great tide, angels and demons alike uttering wails of mourning to the stars as their beloved humans slaughtered one another without remorse. Enraged by what occurred and blaming the demon king, Alfor took it upon himself to punish the demons for their mistake; something never done before, as angels and demons were always equals.  
  
Calling upon the five astral lions, Alfor commanded them to go with him and four of his generals to destroy the demons' capital city, where Zarkon's castle stood, as punishment. The five beasts obeyed his command, as he was king, and did as he told.  
  
Alfor could not have possibly anticipated the extent of their power.  
  
The castle, and the city surrounding it, were destroyed in an onslaught of fire, ice, earthquakes, rampant winds, and twisted vines. Dozens, if not hundreds of demons were killed when they failed to escape the capital city before the lions struck. Among the fallen was Honerva, an angel who had been an old friend of Alfor's... she had moved to the demon city to live with Zarkon after falling in love with him and becoming his wife. Both she and their halfling son, a mere child, vanished in the rubble of the city that day as the roars of the lions rang through the air.  
  
Distraught by the apparent betrayal of his friend and the astral beasts themselves, Zarkon responded in kind, rallying his surviving demons to avenge their fallen comrades and attack the angels' capital city. He succeeded in getting his revenge, but only after he not only destroyed the angels' capital city, burned Alfor's castle to the ground, and slayed countless innocents... but after he slayed the angels' king himself. Alfor had fallen, a lifeless body on the floor of his burning castle, and as his blood ran red through the glistening white walls, the war officially began.  
  
As angels and demons went from loving one another to waging war, the Creators That Be found they could not trust them with the five astral lions anymore. Thus, they instructed the lions to leave the castle the spirits had built for them and to seal themselves away, until five individuals worthy of their blessings arose to bring back the balance between order and chaos. Among the death, destruction, and heartbreak, the great beasts disappeared, locking themselves away in the far reaches of the spiritual realm and abandoning the angels and demons to their own destruction.  
  
Ten thousand years have passed since then, and one of the Astral Lions has finally been awakened.


	2. The Angel in My Yard

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eight-year-old Matthew Holt is at home with his baby sister, Katie, and the nanny he is really fed up with, when he hears Bae Bae, the family dog, barking in the yard. Realizing it's cold out, being an early February night, he goes to let the dog in, but what he finds in the yard changes, or ends, his life.

They say good people sometimes do bad things, but that doesn't make them bad people. Matthew never fully understood that until he met Shiro.  
  
It was late. He should have been in bed, but he was still up, sitting on the floor in his room and watching cartoons on the television set. Video game cartridges lay scattered on the floor in front of their respective console, along with stuffed animals, crayons, and coloring books. Posters of outer space and the deep ocean adorned the walls, interrupted by a single framed photograph of Matt holding his baby sister, Katie, when he first met her in the hospital. That was nearly two years ago; he was a big kid now, and Katie a toddler. She was even starting to talk, so he could hold some sort of conversation with her... or at least prompt a few words out of her. It was nice.  
  
The eight-year-old boy pushed his glasses up his nose as a commercial interrupted his show, then sighed. He was getting a little hungry.  
  
Rising to his feet, Matt made his way out of his bedroom and down the hall, to the staircase that led to the ground floor of the Holt family's house. He held the railing as he quietly descended the stairs, but once he reached the bottom and peered into the living room, he saw he had nothing to worry about; the nanny was sound asleep on the couch, an empty bottle and a half-filled glass resting on the coffee table. He wrinkled his nose in disgust at the sound of her snoring. He would have to let his mother know that this nanny stole some of her wine, once she was back from her business trip.   
  
Shaking his head, he made his way into the kitchen and pulled open the fridge to get a strawberry yogurt. He _could_ have gone for some junk food instead, with no sober adults around to scold him for it, but he respected the rules his parents set too much to do that. Honestly, why did they even need a nanny? He shook his head as he got out a spoon and sat at the table, looking out of the sliding glass doors that led to the backyard. He could take care of himself, and all of the nannies they hired were either young and paid more attention to their phones, or old and had a habit of digging around in the wine rack or medicine cabinet.  
  
Crying from upstairs answered that question when he was only about halfway through his yogurt cup. His sister was awake.  
  
Setting his snack on the table, Matt crept back up the stairs and down the hallway to the baby's room. He nudged open the door and looked in to see the toddler standing upright in her crib, gripping the bars in both hands and letting out distressed cries as she craned her neck to peer over the side of the crib. She was a really tiny kid for someone who was going to be two in a few months, like a literal baby-doll. Too small to get out of her crib by herself, no matter how much she tried climbing it.  
  
"It's okay, Pidge. Don't cry," Matt said softly, stepping into the room and approaching the crib. He had a special nickname for her, in honor of her fluffy hair that stuck out in all directions like a baby bird's down. 'Pigeon,' which had eventually been shortened to the single syllable 'Pidge.'   
  
"Mah-teeee," Pidge sobbed, one arm slipping between the bars of her crib to reach out towards him.   
  
He simply unlatched the side of her crib, lowering the one side enough for him to reach over the bars and pull her out. Fortunately, she wasn't too heavy, so he didn't struggle too much to pick her up and hug her against his chest. "I've got you. You don't like the nanny, do you? She didn't do your bedtime right."  
  
Pidge sniffled, giving a wordless whine as she tucked her head against his shoulder and grabbed handfuls of his shirt in her tiny hands. She had never been good at going to bed, nor staying asleep, though her family found ways to help soothe her into sleeping through the whole night. Well, at least most of it. But, like usual, the nanny didn't think she had to do everything just the way Matt said, and now here he was, with a cranky sister who couldn't sleep.  
  


Trying his best to soothe the toddler, Matt bounced her a little in his arms and walked in circles around her room. The carpet was soft under his feet, being the plushest flooring his parents could find to pad a baby's bedroom with, though they were too smart to have it be white; too easily stained. Instead, it was dark blue... not pink, because they all thought Katie was going to be a Kyle up until she was born, and they saw that the ultrasound lady at the hospital was wrong in guessing it was a boy. Matt hadn't been too disappointed in having a sister, though, especially since Katie was pretty great when she wasn't a whining mess wiping her nose on his shirt. He smiled a bit to himself and sighed, continuing to walk a little in hopes of calming her down, carefully stepping around the toys on the floor and avoiding the corner where the special trash can for diapers was. His sister was still at least a year away from potty training. 

 

"It's okay. Mama will be home in a few days, and maybe we'll get to make another video for Daddy to see up in space. You liked the last one he sent back, right?" He murmured, patting her back with one hand. She simply whined again in response, kicking her little feet, one of which was missing a sock. 

  
Matt sighed, debating on if he could try giving her a warm bath like she always had before bed -- which of course the nanny didn't give her, since she bathed her once earlier -- but it was awfully late. The noise from the water might wake the half-drunk nanny, anyway, and he didn't want to get yelled at. So, he just continued to walk in circles in the silence, the room illuminated only by the moonlight filtering in from outside.  
  
The silence was eventually broken, however, when he heard the family dog, Bae Bae, begin barking wildly from outside.  
  
Wait. Outside?! The nanny left him outside?! It was early February! Poor Bae Bae was going to freeze his tail off!  
  


Groaning, Matt shifted Pidge in his arms -- she was getting heavy -- and began to make his way back down the stairs. He passed through the kitchen, where his yogurt cup still lay abandoned, and unlocked the sliding glass doors to push them open, followed by the screen door that accompanied them. He shivered as a gust of cold late-winter air rushed over him, and Katie stiffened, clinging tighter to him. He did his best to keep her warm with his arms wrapped around her, stepping out into the grass of the yard and looking around for the dog, who was nowhere in sight. "Bae? Bae Bae!"

 

The barking continued, coming from around the corner of the house, near his dad's shed. Why would he be over there...? Matt shivered a bit as he stepped across the wiry, dead yellow grass in the yard, frost crunching under his socks. "Bae Bae! Come on, let's go inside!"

 

He rounded the corner, ducking around the evergreen shrubs his mother had planted all around the house, and froze as he felt his foot step in something wet. He would have assumed it was just water, if it wasn't... warm. Making a face, he looked down and stepped back, expecting to have stepped in something left by the dog, only to see that whatever it was, it was red, and had an awful, metallic smell that he remembered from that time he fell off his bike and knocked one of his front teeth out. Again, he froze. That smell was blood. Why was there blood all over the grass?!

 

His little heart starting to pound in his chest, Matthew staggered back a step, falling on his butt in the grass with Katie still clutched tightly in his arms. "W-what...?"

 

Finally, he looked up, and could make out the shape of Bae Bae in the dark. The dog was barking at a figure laying in the far corner of the yard, tucked between the tall wooden fence, some shrubs, and the side of the shed... he would have been pretty easy to miss, in that hiding place, if he didn't have a pair of huge, white feathered wings protruding from his back, glowing softly in the moonlight as if they were made from the stars themselves. Matt's breath caught in his throat, his eyes going wide as he just stared.

 

An angel. It was an angel.

 

His father didn't believe in them, saying they were just stories, but his grandmother took him and Katie to church when they visited on the weekends, and he heard all about angels. He at least knew enough about them to know that they were good, holy beings, and that they had big white wings like that. And this one... this one was hurt... He looked like a boy, human enough aside from his pointed ears, some glowing white triangles under his eyes, and, of course, the wings. Matt would have guessed he was a high school boy, perhaps sixteen? He had a soft face and was still small and lean, with big, dark eyes and hair that was black with a white tuft in the front, though the white was stained with spots of red, damp and clinging to his face. A cut ran across the bridge of his nose, other wounds peppering his body, though the most noticeable wound was his arm... it was... most of it was missing...

 

The angel drew in a rattling breath and let it out slowly, his dark eyes fixed on Matt, who could only breathlessly stare back. Then, slowly, the angel lifted his remaining arm, holding his hand out to Matt in a pleading way, like when Katie reached for him through the bars of her crib. He was afraid. 

 

Swallowing his fear, Matthew pushed himself to his feet, clutching at Katie's pajama pants to keep her from falling out of his grip. He held her tightly to his chest, then slowly took a step towards the angel laying there in his yard... was he dying? Could angels die?

 

Katie whimpered, but he still kept moving forward, one step at a time, until his socks were soaked from the blood on the grass and he was almost close enough to reach out and take the angel's hand. For a moment, he hesitated, searching the boy's face... the fear, pain, and loneliness, like these really were about to be his last moments. What kind of person would he be for ignoring an angel during his time of need?

 

Throwing caution to the wind, no matter how much his stomach began to tie itself in knots, as if warning him not to do this, he reached out with one hand. His fingers brushed against the angel's palm, and he felt the much bigger hand close gently around his own, the angel's grip surprisingly warm, almost hot. Matthew clutched his hand in return, giving his fingers a comforting squeeze and the tiniest of smiles. _It'll be okay. You're not alone._

To his surprise, the a tear ran from the corner of the angel's eye, and he said in a soft voice, "I'm sorry..."

 

That was when Matthew felt a jolt shoot through his entire little body, knocking the wind out of him and making his heart freeze in his chest. Warmth and cold seemed to war with one another for a long moment, and Katie shrieked once before falling silent, hanging from his arm like a deadweight as she went limp all over. Black dots swarmed his vision, and his knees buckled, his last thought being to fall backwards so he wouldn't squish Katie before he lost consciousness.


End file.
